A thriller is a genre in visual media and literature which focuses on action, fast pacing, tension, and suspense. The conflicts are usually between desperate heroes and powerful antagonists who outmatch them by a large margin. Frequent location changes, time shortage, and Cliffhangers are extremely common.
Thrillers can overlap with almost any other genre. They are more defined by their plot and devices than by their content. They can be identified by the thrills the work gives to the reader or viewer.
Modern incarnations of Thrillers seem to overlap more and more often with the Horror and Science Fiction genres, leading to a misclassification of all Thrillers as being Horror, Science Fiction, or both.
Not to be confused with either the Michael Jackson album or the old Boris Karloff-hosted anthology series, nor yet the 1970s British anthology series. Although the Michael Jackson music video does slightly fit in.
Subgenres
Tropes often associated with the genre
- Cliffhanger
- Mad Lib Thriller Title
- The Reveal
- Title In: Used to make sure the audience doesn't get confused by frequent location changes.
Examples
- All the Money in the World
- Anthropoid, overlapping with historical drama and war film.
- Apartment Zero
- Atomic Blonde, overlapping with Action.
- Berserk!
- A Bittersweet Life
- Criminal
- 22 Bullets, overlapping with Action.
- 28 Days Later, overlapping with Horror.
- The Black Dahlia
- The Bourne Series, overlapping with Action.
- The Boy Next Door
- Brake
- Buried
- The Call
- Charade
- Circle
- Cold Comes the Night, a crime thriller.
- Cold Sweat
- The Conspiracy, overlapping with Horror.
- Dark Asylum
- The Dark Knight Trilogy is a Thriller mixed with superhero and neo-noir. Each of the movies qualifies in different ways:
- Batman Begins fits this genre in the second half of the movie, as the first half focused on Batman's origins.
- The Dark Knight is a crime Thriller throughout the whole movie.
- The Dark Knight Rises is a Thriller mixed with Disaster Movie elements.
- The Day the Earth Caught Fire
- Detonator 2003
- Don't Breathe
- Duel
- Everly-overlapping with action.
- Ex Machina, overlapping with Science-Fiction.
- Femme Fatale
- Freeway -overlapping with comedy.
- The Gift (2015) a psychological thriller
- Hard Candy
- Heat
- Hell Drivers
- Highwaymen
- Hit Team
- The Hunt for Red October
- The Hunted (1995)
- Intruders
- Jacob's Ladder, overlapping with horror.
- Jack's Back, overlapping with Supernatural Thriller.
- Jurassic Park, overlapping with Horror and Science Fiction.
- La Colonia: Overlaps with historical drama.
- The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
- A Lonely Place to Die
- Kindergarten Cop, overlapping with comedy.
- Man Vs, overlapping with science fiction and horror.
- Money Monster
- Nerve
- No Escape
- No Tears for the Dead
- The Matrix, overlapping with Cyberpunk.
- Open Grave, overlapping with Horror.
- Perfect Assassins, overlapping with Action and Mystery
- Poker Night
- The Power (1968), overlapping with Science Fiction.
- The President's Last Bang
- The Purge, overlapping with Horror and Science Fiction.
- The Quiet
- Quick
- Rear Window
- Red Hill
- Reservoir Dogs, overlapping with Crime And Punishment.
- Rolling Thunder, overlapping with crime, action and Exploitation Film.
- The Roommate
- Runaway Jury, overlapping with Crime and Punishment, and Law Procedural.
- Shiri
- Shooter
- Shut In, overlapping with Horror.
- The Silence of the Lambs, overlapping with Horror.
- Siren (2010), a psychological thriller overlapping with horror.
- Sisters of Death
- The Sixth Sense
- Skin Trade, overlapping with Action.
- Sleepers
- Sneakers
- The Snowman (2017), overlapping with Horror.
- Solace
- Split
- Strangers on a Train
- Surveillance
- Targets
- Tesis
- Ties That Bind (2006), overlapping with Drama.
- Ties That Bind (2010), overlapping with Mystery and Crime.
- The Transporter, overlapping with Action.
- Unbreakable
- The Guest , overlapping with Mystery and Action.
- Stay
- Vows Of Deceit - also known as Deadly Matrimony
- Wild Things
- You Were Never Really Here
- Youth of the Beast
- Bosch
- Braquo
- 20 Minutes, overlapping with drama.
- Cleverman
- Colony, overlapping with drama and science fiction.
- Deutschland 83, overlapping with spy fiction.
- Fauda
- Locked Up, overlapping with prison drama.
- Medici: overlapping with historical fiction.
- Scandal, overlapping with politics and drama.
- Shots Fired
- Spotless
- The Man in the High Castle
- Six
- Tyrant
- Gods Will Be Watching, a Point And Click thriller with some Science Fiction elements.
